


Blackthorns

by Conifers



Category: Dark Artifices Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: America, Cassandra Clare - Freeform, Downworlders, F/M, Faeries - Freeform, Gay, Lady Midnight - Freeform, Lightwood, Los Angeles, M/M, Parabatai, Runes, Shadowhunters - Freeform, The Dark Artifices - Freeform, Wild Hunt, clave, the mortal instruments - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-23
Updated: 2016-08-28
Packaged: 2018-06-09 14:30:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6911020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Conifers/pseuds/Conifers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>**Carries on from book, may be spoilers**</p><p>Emma graciously accepts Mark's offer. After all, it might as well save herself and Julian. She could hardly consider it being the worst thing in the world. Even if her heart still lays with someone else.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

"Why lie?" Mark said. His hand was still outstretched to Emma.  
Underneath the surface, she had an internal debate. She loved Julian but she could easily fall for Mark. His Blackthorn blue and his Jace-gold eyes shone at her. His pale blonde hair fell into his face. How could she resist? He was beautiful in an entirely different way to Julian which was perfect. Mark was perfect.  
This was for the best, after all. Emma could think of many thing worse than having to fall in love with Mark.  
At last, she grabbed onto his hand, interlocking their fingers. The action was her answer and it was enough for Mark. He led Emma to her bed. Catching Emma with surprise, Mark quickly pounced on her with his lips. She couldn't say she minded. His lips were different to Julian's. They did not taste of cloves but freedom of the hunt and the salty sea air.  
His mouth was moving against hers in harmony, unrushed like they had all the time in the world.  
That was not the case.  
"Emma?" Ty stood in the doorway with Kit.  
Sometime Mark had moved Emma onto his lap and she had wrapped her hands around his neck, playing with the short blonde hairs at the nape of his neck.  
"Ty!" Emma exclaimed, "I, Uh..." She faltered. What could she do but climb off Mark's lap and move towards Ty?  
"I can come back later... If you two weren't too busy."  
"No, sorry, so..." Her voice broke. Being caught kissing a boy was completely new to her. She cleared her throat and began again, "So, what's up?"  
"Kit would like to talk to you." Ty stated.  
"Okay, I'll be in the library in five minutes."  
Ty closed the door and headed towards the library, Kit following at his heels.

"Would you be so inclined to go on a date with me, beautiful one?" Mark asked as soon as she turned to face him.  
"Sure... But where?" She questioned. They couldn't have a date in the institute and there weren't many other places. Nightshade's pizza parlour would be shutting down since they grassed on Anselm.  
At least Robert Lightwood was too caught up on Nightshade that he didn't dig too deep into their endeavors.  
"I'll arrange it, don't you worry." Mark flashed her a smile, a pure Mark Blackthorn smile.  
She had to admit, she fell a little bit more in love with that grin.  
Mark left the room, beckoning Emma to follow him. Probably to the library. Kit and Ty would be waiting.

"What do you mean you want to see what I can do?!" Kit was yelling now, it was drawing a small crowd. Dru, Tavvy and Livvy had come into the library to see what all the ruckus was about.  
Somehow, Johnny Rook had drilled it into Kit's head that everything to do was Shadowhunters was wrong and disgraceful. He'd been warned that they would try to take him, try to twist him to make him a Shadowhunter. Kit didn't want to be. Kit wanted to go back to his day-to-day life with all the deceptions and cons but most of all, he wanted his father back.  
Admittedly, Johnny was never very fond of Kit. He always hid him and convinced him that he should never be seen. He hid him away in the basement whenever someone came round. No one knew of his existence. His presence was noted in the shadow market but was never seen to be related to Rook. Maybe just an acquaintance of some sort.  
This all changed when Ty came. He saw Kit for who he really was. Johnny Rook's son. But he was always more than that and Ty could see it.  
He had a talent, Kit thought. He could see through the first layer of his whole façade. It gave him more faith in the whole Shadowhunter world.  
"Kit, I know this is hard for you-"  
"You don't!" Kit interrupted. Emma was trying her hardest to be civil but this kid really made her what to slam his head onto the table a few times. No matter what, Kit didn't want to do what Emma suggested. He had no training so what was he going to show them in the training room?  
"Okay I may not understand but being a Shadowhunter is not a burden or a disease. We just need to see what you can do so we know where to train you from there." Emma tried again. Diana would be proud about how she was dealing with this situation.  
"It'll be okay." Ty consoled Kit. All of the people in the room gaped at Ty. He was never sympathetic and has never used that sort of voice before.  
Livvy, especially, couldn't believe it. He had really took a shine to Kit which was extra strange seeing as he had a knife to the boy's throat just a few days ago.  
"I'll show you where the training room is." Ty got out of his chair, creating a loud scratching noise against the floor. It was as if the noise told everyone to leave the room as the crowd dispersed. Once everyone had left, it was Emma and Mark alone again. He squeezed her hand, it was comforting and it made her happy that she could now display her affections in front of people rather than hiding it.  
It was true that hiding love made it grow stronger- made it harder to hide. This would be different, they could show it to the world.  
Emma left the room without a word said to Mark. He didn't mind. He knew she was stressed about Kit and the smile she flashed him let him know she was fairly okay.

The training room seem deserted when Emma first entered. There was, seemingly, no movement. The ropes hanging from the ceiling swayed slightly from the breeze coming from the window. Emma moved over to the window and shut it. The wind was chilling. She looked out over the sandy LA beach which stretched out in front of her.  
The tide was drawing in, the wind dragging it in more quickly.  
"By the angel." Emma cursed. Two slender bodies were walking down the slither of sand left on the beach.


	2. Chapter 2

"They're going to kill us, aren't they?" Kit questioned.  
"I don't think they will. Maybe they will shout a little bit but the air will clear soon enough." Ty responded, playing with the fries laid out in front of him. They weren't very nice fries. Ty would have preferred to take Kit to his favourite place. There, the fries are like gold and the sauces are to die for. But this pizzeria- Diletto- was the only place in range of the Institute that Ty could think to go. No one would look for them here, Ty thought, rolling his newly picked fry in the barbeque sauce.  
"How's your burger?" Ty asked eventually after trying to find an intellectual conversation topic... And failing.  
"It's okay. This place doesn't really live up to its name though."  
"Its name? Diletto?"  
"Diletto means delight in Italian." Kit smirked. He had clearly impressed Ty with his Italian speech.  
"Do you know any other languages?" Ty asked, intrigued with Kit. He didn't expect him to be as intelligent as he is.  
"Je sais que vous êtes très belle."  
"Oh so you know French. What does it mean?" Ty knew what it meant. He just asked to see if Kit would tell him. Ty could feel a blush creeping up his neck. Kit thought he was beautiful.  
"That is for me to know and for you to find out." Kit leaned back casually on his chair. He smirked at Ty.  
"Hey, we better get back. It's getting late. Julian and Emma are going to be worried." And with that, the two boys left Diletto.

"WHERE ON EARTH HAVE YOU BEEN? YOU'VE HAD US ALL WORRIED."  
"We were just down the road, we fancied something to eat. Julian, you have nothing to worry about."  
"You could have been jumped by demons! It isn't like you have anything to defend yourself with and with all that has been going on. Kit is in our protection, Ty. You can't just make him jump out a bloody window just to get something to eat! He needs to train and be safe. What were you thinking?"  
"I was thinking about food."  
"Ty, just go to your room." Julian said, exasperatedly. He was tired. He didn't want to be dealing with this at the moment. He was having a hard time. Ty just wasn't thinking carefully. Julian never sent the kids to their rooms. It made him feel guilty but what else could he do?  
Ty slipped from the kitchen. Kit tried following but within a heartbeat, Emma was already at the door, preventing him from leaving.  
"Nu-uh. We need to speak to you now."  
"Kit," Julian rubbed his forehead, "Well what can I say. At least we know you're good with heights but we still need to see what training you can do. Tomorrow morning. You go get a good night’s sleep, I know it has been a long day. I know you don't want to be a Shadowhunter but tomorrow we will see what you can do with a Seraph blade. Okay?"  
"Sure." Kit answered. He didn't want to give Julian a hard time. He seemed to be doing the best for everyone.  
The three of them left the room.

Emma. It was the word stuck in Julian's throat. He wanted to call out to Emma who was walking in front of him. He wanted to call out to her and see where they stood with each other. Julian just felt like he had been mugged off. He loved Emma and opened up to her about things he's never opened up about. Like his secret room.  
Her name died out in his throat.  
Julian stopped dead in his tracks as Emma took a left into, none other than, Marks room.

So this is what it’s like to have your heart stamped on in front of your eyes. Julian doubled over and leant against the wall, breathing heavily. He was gasping for air. Tears spilled from his eyes and a croaking from his mouth.  
“Jules?” Drusilla called, “Jules!” She called louder. Julian looked up and met Dru’s wild eyes, now clouded with nervousness. What was happening to her big brother?  
“Yes?” He choked out.  
“What’s happening?” Dru grabbed onto Julian’s arm and lead him into his own bedroom.  
“I’m tired and I just feel a bit lightheaded. Don’t mind me, I’m just going to go sleep now, Dru, you should too.”  
“Okay.” Drusilla acknowledged, still sceptical about Julian’s health but she left him be. If he believes he is okay, then he must be relatively okay.  
As soon as Dru had left the room, Julian poured his heart out into his pillow. He screamed until he had no voice left. Tears soaked his pillow, drying out his eyes. The emotion going through him was overwhelming and he just knew that Emma would be able to feel his rush of emotions. They were so intense and so great that the parabatai bond would be transferring them from Julian to Emma.  
Emma could feel it. The love, the hate, the heartbreak. But there was nothing she could do. Emma glanced over to the man lying beside her. His beautiful blonde hair was spread out over his pillow. His chest rose and fell softly and slowly.  
He looked like an angel sleeping, Emma couldn’t deny that but he wasn’t Julian. Julian looked like a complete different type of Angel when sleeping. Emma hit her head a few times with the palm of her hand to rid the thoughts of Julian. She couldn’t think of him like that anymore.  
“Em?” Mark croaked, draping an arm around her waist.  
“Mm?”  
“What is the matter?”  
“Nothing, just a headache.”  
“So hitting your head is making it better?” Mark rose his eyebrows at the same time the left side of his mouth twitched upwards into a smirk.  
“Oh shut up!”  
Mark shut up instantly by pressing his mouth to Emma’s.


	3. Chapter 3

"Mark!" Emma whispered, trying to get Mark to wake up. She shook him multiple times by the shoulders but he would not wake. After a few minutes of trying, she decided to get up and go to Julian instead. She was aware going to Julian in the middle of the night wasn't the best idea but she had no other choice and he was, after all, her parabatai and the institute leader to them.

"Julian!" She whispered, trying to grab his attention the same way she did with Mark. Julian woke up straight away.  
"Emma?" He lifted his head and moved his messy hair away from his eyes. His face nearly made Emma dart out of the room and run miles away. He'd clearly been crying but his eyes, oh his beautiful sea blue eyes, were full of love and longing.  
'How can I be causing him so much pain?' Emma thought to herself. She loved him so much, it nearly killed her to do this to him but it was what needed to be done.  
"I heard someone in the institute. I, uh, didn't have my weapons on me. We need to go check it." Julian was up in an instant. He ran over to his wardrobe and pulled out four seraph blades.  
"Let’s go." Julian was suddenly in full parent mode. He needed to protect his children.  
"What's wrong?" Julian asked before he left the room. Emma was standing in the doorway awkwardly which gave Julian the impression something was wrong.  
"You, uh, might want to get dressed first." Emma said, obviously flustered.  
Julian looked down at his bare body. He had only his boxers on. He thought it was quite odd that Emma was getting all flustered about him being in his boxers. It had never bothered her before. He decided to chuck on some jogging bottoms but left his toned chest bare.  
"Now let’s go."  
The two of them left the room together, side by side, focusing on the task in hand- finding the intruder. Emma swung one of her seraph blades around in her hand and the other sat comfortably in the waist band of her shorts.  
"Haniel." Julian whispered. His seraph blade burst into life, ready for a fight.

It wasn't long before they found the trespasser leaning against one of the bookshelves in the library.  
Emma shot Julian a worried look. They could only see the silhouette of the person. The person was engulfed in shadows which was probably how they had planned it.  
"Intruder," Julian called, "State your name and your business here." Emma couldn't help but think of how professional Julian was in moments like this. He had so many different skills. He could be professional or friendly or loving but he would always be the same to Emma no matter what façade he put on.   
'Focus.' She told herself. She should not be thinking about Julian right now. She had the person- or thing- to deal with at this moment.  
"I'm a Shadowhunter. I have Shadowhunter business here." The voice sounded vaguely familiar to both Emma and Julian but neither of them could quite put their finger on who it belonged to. Julian shot Emma another worried glance. Demons were easy to deal with. You killed them, that was it but Shadowhunters were more difficult.   
This Shadowhunter clearly wasn't supposed to be here, in the institute library yet he was. A rebel Shadowhunter, it seemed.  
Julian eyed up the figure. It was most likely a man. He was tall with long legs and he had a very deep voice which was quite scratchy. It seemed that he was a lot older than Julian and Emma. If he was, he should've known better than to just walk into the LA institute.  
"Why didn't the clave tell us we would be having a guest and why did you just show up here in the middle of the night, without telling anyone and without knocking on the institute door?" Julian questioned, "Now tell me, what your name is and why you are here."  
Instead of answering, the person sauntered forwards. As soon as their face hit the light, no one in the room made a sound. The world had stopped spinning in the library. Anything outside of the room did not exist in that very moment. It was just the three of them. Emma, Julian and Andrew... Andrew Blackthorn.


End file.
